On Wednesday 31 December 2008 15:49:27 Joseph Scriva wrote: > Am i right? should > i keep practicing on the 4N until i can strengthen my lips? are there > anyways to speed up the process?
I've always found a larger mouthpiece to fit my teeth and lips better than a narrow one, and for a while I was using a Wick 4n with my 8DS and other horns. It fit me well, and the narrow rim made articulation easy, but that's a *really* deep cone-shaped mouthpiece, and it darkens the sound of an already dark instrument. My quest eventually led me to a Laskey 85G, which is nearly as large, works as well for me, and sounds much better with the 8D. I also partially blame the 4n for making it difficult to match the F side of my horn with the Bb side, exacerbating an inherent problem in the Eastlake 8Ds. The Laskey fixed that as well. It's my personal philosophy that we do best with mouthpieces that both fit us well, *and* work well with the particular horn. I believe you're right in expecting that you'll need to strengthen your embouchure as you work with a bigger mouthpiece. Each time I moved to a bigger one, over the years, it was necessary for my embouchure to grow into it. However, based on my experience with it, I doubt that you'll find that the other characteristics of that 4n will work well with your horn. Sorry! _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
